Golden Gloves 2011

Matt with the Win!

Jonah Landing the Big Left

Photos by Surly

The Golden Gloves tourney is fast drawing to a close. There are two more weeks and we have two fighters still in the tourney, one each on the next two Thursdays. We haven't been quite as successful this year as we have been the previous two years nor have we as many fighters entered. We do have quality fighters entered and that's what counts.

I missed the first night of action when Tim "The Bleeder" fought due to being out of town. By all accounts, however, it was a good fight with Tim rocking his opponent several times. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and they stopped the fight in the third round. Tim's a tough boy and he just keeps getting better, so I look for some big things from him in the future. He needs to work a little on his defense yet but he'll be something once he sharpens up just a little more.

This week we took three fighters down but only one fought. Doug experienced a growth spurt and took himself out of contention by being a couple of pounds over. No ones fault here. Doug just grew about three inches since he signed up! Usually you don't have such a long lead time between signing up and fighting but with the Gloves there was about six weeks that elapsed. All part of growing up.

Matt got a walkover win in his division. He really wanted to fight but unless the other guy was pretty spectacular, Matt would have won anyway. He's a hard worker and is extremely fit. He's always outworking most of the other guys. Couple that work ethic up with good solid skills, and that's a tough combination to beat. Congratulations Matt!

Jonah lost a very close decision against a real slick looking opponent. His opponent came out with a couple of nice right uppercuts that caught Jonah by surprise. Me too, as far as that goes. I've never seen anyone at that level throw an uppercut as nicely as that. Plus, he either set it up with the left or followed it with the left. He won the first round easily. The second round was very close with Jonah gaining control and staying away from the uppercut a little bit better. Jonah was solidly in control the third round and won that one by at least the same margin as his opponent did the first one. The judges awarded the decision to the other young man but after the fight the referee told Jonah that if he had pressed the kid a little more in the second round he would have won the fight and he complimented Jonah on his abilities. Nice to hear that from the man in charge.

We have an in-house show this coming Friday night, April 8th. Show starts at 7:00 and tickets are on sale now. Come out and see some really good amateur boxing.